BASEBALL

BASEBALL; Selig, in a Sense of Mourning, Cancels Baseball Games

By MURRAY CHASS

Published: September 12, 2001

In the wake of yesterday's terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon, Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig called off last night's full schedule of 15 games and said he would make subsequent decisions on future games. It was the third time in history that a warlike act prompted postponement of major league games.

''I'm going to have to use my judgment,'' Selig said in a telephone interview. ''You just have to use sensitivity and good judgment. We are a social institution that needs to be not only responsible but hopefully helpful as we move forward. So we'll do what's not in our best interest but in the best interests of this country, whatever that is. Right now I'm in shock. I don't have a timetable.''

In a statement earlier in the day, Selig said he called off last night's games in ''the interest of security and out of a sense of deep mourning for the national tragedy that has occurred today.''

During World War II, the two games scheduled for June 6, 1944 -- D-Day -- were canceled out of respect for President Roosevelt's request that people focus their attention on the effort in Europe.

In 1918, during World War I, the National and American leagues voted to shorten the season, ending it on Sept. 2. Teams missed from 25 to 31 games, and the World Series began on Sept. 5.

The last time baseball games were forced to be postponed by an event not involving a labor impasse was in 1989, when an earthquake in San Francisco interrupted the World Series for 10 days.

The major league games made up the most prominent part of a wave of cancellations of sports events, which also included minor league baseball playoff games, professional soccer games, horse racing and the scheduled start of several professional golf tournaments Thursday. The cancellations could continue into the weekend and affect college and professional football and a middleweight championship fight set for Madison Square Garden on Saturday night.

Selig said it had not been determined if last night's games or any other games that might be postponed would be made up. ''That's something we'll review as time goes on,'' he said.

Hanging on that decision, with only 19 days left on the regular-season schedule, will be some division and wild-card races and Barry Bonds's pursuit of Mark McGwire's home run record. Bonds, who needs seven home runs to tie McGwire at 70, had been scheduled to play three games with the San Francisco Giants at Houston's hitter-friendly Enron Field beginning last night.

Asked if the Bonds scenario would have an impact on his thinking, Selig referred to President Bush, who before he got into politics was the managing partner of the Texas Rangers and a fellow owner.

''The president, when I see him, kids me about the tough job I have,'' the commissioner said. ''I guess if I were with him today, I'd say it might be a tough job but it's all about games. His job is tough and it's about life and death. I can't worry about games today.''

It's possible that the sports-minded president, borrowing from previous presidents in times of war, would urge Major League Baseball to resume its schedule to lighten the mood of the country. Selig, who also canceled owners meetings scheduled for yesterday and today in Milwaukee, spoke from a temporary office at the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee after authorities, as a precaution, evacuated the 40-floor building, the city's tallest, that houses the commissioner's offices.

He said he would very likely make decisions on future postponements on a day-to-day basis, but could decide instead to make a long-range decision.

The teams that are scheduled to oppose each other in the current series this week play each other again next week. For example, the Yankees were scheduled to play host to the White Sox last night, tonight and tomorrow night; they play a three-game series in Chicago next week. So Selig could cancel all of the games until Friday, and the teams could conceivably play doubleheaders next week, although that plan would create a hectic schedule at a critical time of the season for some teams.

Selig said the doubleheader idea had not been discussed ''because this has been so stunning. We just need to think this through.''

Most affected from the standpoint of the division races were the games that had Philadelphia at Atlanta and San Francisco at Houston. The Phillies are three and a half games behind the Braves in the National League East. The Astros lead the Central by five games, and the Giants lead the N.L. wild-card race by half a game and trail Arizona by a game and a half in the West.

The series between the Giants and the Astros was one of three that matched teams that have not played each other this season. The others had the Mets in Pittsburgh and the White Sox at Yankee Stadium.

All of the visiting teams except one were in the cities where they had been scheduled to play last night, having arrived sometime Monday or Sunday night. The lone exception was the Los Angeles Dodgers, who had planned to travel to San Diego by bus yesterday.

''We did not go,'' said John Olguin, the team's public relations director. ''We were leaving this morning, but that was put off for however long.''

The Mets traveled from Florida to Pittsburgh on their off day Monday. The White Sox flew to New York for their series with the Yankees after their game in Cleveland on Monday night.

''We landed at 1:15 a.m.,'' said Ed Cassin, the team's manager of team travel. ''We'll sit tight for now. Obviously, even if we wanted to leave New York, there wouldn't be a vehicle to get us out of here, even ground transportation.''

In Kansas City, where Cleveland had been scheduled to play last night, the general manager of the hotel where the team was listed as staying said the Indians had asked that he neither confirm nor deny that they were there.

In Baltimore, the hotel where the Toronto Blue Jays were staying asked guests who were in rooms above the third floor to leave their rooms temporarily as a precautionary measure.

A couple of players did not accompany the team when it flew to Baltimore from Detroit on Sunday night, said Howard Starkman, the Blue Jays' vice president for media relations. He said Darrin Fletcher went to his home near Chicago, then learned on his way to the airport yesterday that he would not be able to fly to Baltimore. Carlos Delgado, Starkman said, was in Toronto.

The Blue Jays closed Skydome and their offices early yesterday. ''Due to the catastrophic events that have occurred in the United States,'' a telephone recording said, ''we will be closed for the balance of the day.''

Among other players who had spent an off day at home, John Burkett had been scheduled to be the starting pitcher for the Braves last night but wound up being delayed in Dallas.